Z'Tejas Versus Zipps Over Newest Location

​Looks like the strip mall at the southwest corner of Bethany Home Road and 16th Street in Phoenix has become a controversy of concrete these days, positioning Z'Tejas Southwestern Grill and Zipps Sports Grill as this holiday's Heat Miser and Snow Miser in a battle over a new location.

The Phoenix Business Journal reports that Zipp's, the local sports bar chain and one of the strip mall's tenants, is fighting against Scottsdale-based Z'Tejas, the restaurant chain with eleven locations in the Western United States, regarding plans to build a new standalone restaurant at the strip mall's corner, just west of a vacant gas station.

Todd Goldman, owner of Zipps, and other strip mall tenants are claiming issues like scarcity of parking, additional crime, and other nuisances and are fighting Z'Tejas in its negotiations with the city of Phoenix; while Steve Micheletti, CEO of Z'Tejas, says the controversy is a waste of time and resources and that Z'Tejas will prevail, the Phoenix Business Journal reports.

Does Zipps have genuine concerns about the newest Z'Tejas or is this just a good ol' case of the competition jitters? In any case, time will tell.

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Some of the dumbest logic I've seen in a while...adding another restaurant makes both busier in the long run..uh no. That's like saying adding a 7-11 to a Circle K corner makes both busier. The reality is it cuts business in half and only one survives down the road. The people in that area aren't bar/restaurant hoppers so they won't migrate from one to the other.

Regardless, Zipps has nothing to worry about. The Ztejas in Tempe and Scottsdale are dead most of the time. This one will be after 6 months too.

Z’Tejas is very excited about opening our new restaurant at the corner of Bethany Home and 16th St. Since we announced the opening, we have been hearing from fans on how excited they are for a Z’Tejas in their neighborhood and how it will continue the rebirth of this community. The landlord, Bethany Core LLC hired Black Top Strategies and surveyed 319 residents and 79% said they were in support of a Z’Tejas opening in their neighborhood and an additional 14% were neutral. We acknowledge that parking is a concern for some people. At our expense, we will provide valet parking in a secured spot behind the shopping center. This means our valet will not take up current parking spots. We will also have our team park behind the shopping center as well. We look forward to fully explaining our plan at the hearing on December 22nd and becoming an active part of the community. Sincerely, Steven A. MichelettiPresident & CEOztejas.com@ztejas.comFacebook/ztejas

In violation of a lease agreement? As a real estate professional, I would doubt there would be even a consideration by the landlord if it were that cut and dry.

I live in the area and am a regular Zipp's patron, and yes the parking in front is a nightmare, however there is ample rear parking. The overall parking ratio will ultimately dictate the shopping center's ability to add another 9k square foot restaurant, and it sounds like it will work on paper.

I think Zipps would benefit from a Z-Tejas in the area because of clientele draw, but ultimately the area would benefit from a Z-Tejas because of clientele type. I think everyone will benefit in two ways: this could force someone's hand in buying the old Chevron and creating more parking, plus the corner will get a legit margarita with Z-Tejas!

Having more restaurants at this corner draws in more people, thus making each place busier in the long run. This location makes the corner busier and Zipps ownership/management is too boneheaded to see that Z'Tejas opening actually helps them.

This story is implying that Zipps is opposed to Z'Tejas opening a new establishment in the plaza at 16th Street & Bethany Home. We would like to correct some of this misinformation. We have absolutely no issue with Z'Tejas. We admire and enjoy their operation and would have zero issue sharing a location with them despite how the media has spun it. We have been put in the spotlight because the media knows it’s more interesting this way. We are pro-business and we understand the benefits of drawing more people to the area. However, this is not a case of Z’Tejas going into vacant space in an existing center- it’s about a very large building being constructed in the middle of the parking lot. This will greatly disrupt all existing retailers visibility, ingress and egress of parking lot traffic and overall ability to park. We don't mind telling you that we negotiated our lease at this location over two years and were very careful to secure the existing parking and making sure that the site plan would remain the same with our landlord. In addition to our lease being overlooked, the center is currently under parked without including the additional proposed building, according to statistics done by a Parking and Traffic Engineer. We believe that our customers, along with all the other existing retailer customers deserve an opportunity to park their cars. We also believe that the City of Phoenix has an obligation to protect the independent operators that have already invested their money into their business which requires that people are able to park enabling the business owners to profitably conduct their business. Overall, this is not a battle with Z'Tejas, but rather a battle with the landlord. Hope this clears up some of the confusion! Thanks for listening :)

When I think of terrible parking I think of Oreganos on Camelback/10th street and also TEXAZ on 16th St/Bethany. Both businesses seem to be doing fine.

Perhaps if the landlord mentioned in the article and Tacobell (franchised ?) got together and built a bomb new fancy Taco Bell building on Chevron's old corner then parking could be expanded a bit near Zipps.

if the new building limits VISIBILITY, which is a very high commodity for a restaurant, it would be unwise for them (Zipps) not to raise a stink. Plus, reduced parking can mean the demise of any business in this a-car-is-a-must town. In addition, visibility is also factored into cost per sq ft that a retailer pays in rent. So stand your ground Zipps. Seems like someone (landlord) isn't playing straight. We support you!

Thanks for the reply. The PBJ article states that although Zipp's claim is with the landlord as you stated, "it doesn’t appear that Goldman is engaging the landlord principally." Is the article inaccurate?

Yes, that is inaccurate. We've been in negotiations with the landlord since the issue was brought to our attention. If Z'Tejas was coming in to a vacant building already in the plaza, this wouldn't be an issue. However, the landlord wants to construct a 9,000 square foot building right in the middle of the parking lot, which is a violation of our lease agreement. All we are asking is that our lease be upheld. We truly have no issues with Z'Tejas, despite the stories that have been told. If we were really afraid of competition, all of our restaurants would be free standing buildings, which they are not. We welcome the competition, new business, and anything that will be better for the center.